Roughnecks Fall 1-0 at Saint Louis FC

The Tulsa Roughnecks FC tried to play spoiler in the USL playoff race Wednesday night but fell short in a 1-0 loss at Saint Louis FC in the next-to-last game of the regular season. The Roughnecks controlled a majority of the possession in the match, but it was STLFC’s Corey Hertzog who produced the game’s only goal. The three points moved Saint Louis into seventh place in the Western Conference and closer to its first-ever USL playoff berth.

Front Page Photo of Terence Smith by Mark Guthrel

The match was originally scheduled to be played on July 14, but severe thunderstorms in the St. Louis area forced the game to be abandoned in the ninth minute.

Wednesday’s match was restarted from the beginning, and Saint Louis started quickly with three early chances. The Roughnecks first effort on goal came in the fifth minute when a shot from Nemanja Vukovic forced a save from the STLFC keeper.

The Roughnecks trouble with defending set pieces haunted them again in the 14th minute, leading to the only goal of the match. On a corner kick, headers from Sam Fink and Phanuel Kavita led to a third header from Corey Hertzog from close range that found the back of the net to give STLFC the lead.

Each team had chances to produce another first-half goal. Tulsa’s best opportunity came in the 19th minute when a header from Claudio Munoz was saved by Tomas Gomez.

Kadeem Dacres nearly found a second for Saint Louis just before halftime, but his shot glanced off the outside of the goalpost.

Tulsa controlled much of the play in the second half in search of an equalizer, but it would not come. Eti Tavares, Michael Gamble and Isaac Diaz caused problems for the STLFC backline, controlling 62% percent of the second-half possession, but they were unable to produce the final shot.

The Roughnecks will now return to Tulsa to close out the 2018 season with their home finale this Saturday, October 13. TRFC will host Seattle Sounders 2 at ONEOK Field with kickoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. in downtown Tulsa.